Burned by Benedict Jacka

Burned jumps right into the fire from the very first word and doesn’t let up until the very end. What a wild ride!

Title:  Burned
Author:  Benedict Jacka
Series: Alex Verus Book 07
Publish Date:  April 5, 2016
Genre:  Urban Fantasy
Source:NetGalley

Publisher’s Description: Diviner Alex Verus finally made one too many enemies on the Council of Mages, and now one of them is angry enough to have him executed. Fighting for his life is nothing new, but this kill order also calls for the death of Alex’s dependents—and there’s no way that he’ll let Luna, Anne, and Vari take the heat.

With only a week before he’s history, Alex will have to figure out how to disassociate himself from his friends, scrounge up allies on the Council, and hopefully keep his head attached to his body.

But saving himself is going to bring him into direct opposition with his former master and the Dark mages surrounding him. And, this time, escaping with his life might mean losing his soul…

Possible spoilers beyond this point.

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Invested Ivana says…

I really love the Alex Verus series (here’s my Pinterest board for the characters). I love the characters and the story and the whole idea of the good guy being persecuted by an indifferent system. Who, these days, can’t relate to that? Alex is fairly resilient, though. He rails against the stupidity of the system that “betrayed” him, but he doesn’t let it totally victimize him. He thumbs his nose at it; tries to work both within it and around it. He knows the light magic system is better than the dark magic system; but doesn’t really have any faith in either.

Over and over, both systems prove him prudent in his mistrust. Especially now. A light mage wants him and all of his friends dead; a dark mage wants him alive, and threatens his friends to get his cooperation. Not seeing any happy ending for himself, Verus tries to save Luna, Anne, and Vari while he still can.

Burned is very fast-paced. You know how frantic Alex must feel just by the pacing of the story. He has a very short time in which to accomplish a whole lot just to save his friends. You feel how frustrated he is by the way the story is told; for the first time in a long time, Alex truly feels doomed, feels as if he has no choices left and he’s just trying to minimize the damage.

And the ending is a killer! OMG, it’s going to be an awfully long wait until the next book!

Burned made me anxious and angry on Alex’s behalf (in a good way, I promise). If you’re a fan of the series, this book is quite an emotional ride.

Other reviews…

• The Arched Doorway
• The Genre Minx Book Reviews
• My Badly Worded Opinion

If you like this book…

…you might try Ben Aaronovitch’s Rivers of London series, Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files series, Kevin Hearne’s Iron Druid Chronicles, or Mark del Franco’s Connor Grey series.